Throughout his ten year career, the filmmaker and artist Narvir Singh (Punjabi, b. 1989 London, UK) has collaborated with key figures from a range of creative disciplines, experimenting with the relationship between poetry, visual art, music and theatre.

I’ve seen the pyramids for decades
I cascade anyone who inlaid
a well-paid, pre-paid, bridesmaid
wanna downgrade
but I wanna go sunshade
I invade anyone who persuades me to pervade
but always joking, ‘cuz this is my password
the crossword, I watched words
you see me break out like a jailbird
but the long-haired
don’t always see
how to be prepared
for the un-repaired
so I see their beads
and needs they wanna feed
when they see me plead and bleed
this is the fasted speed that I can’t
do what I do when I find the tweed suit
isn’t everything to be seen through
the mislead-ed
run with the stampeded
cause you’re an inbreed
take it all up like you are a crossbreed
always remember to just proof-read
siegfried taught me how to misread
but I find the birdseed
sprinkle in the sea, like it be the seaweed
I need to wee, I need to succeed
that’s exactly how I find success
so I precede
less distressed but not careless
wearing necklaces with Malcolm Xs
the exorcists wanna distress the kids
let’s mess with the rest who mess with less
crowded, see the shrouded learn
yearn for anything that was absurd
I see hear the unguarded ones
use words like those retarded ones
unaided unshaded still jaded
I see braided people in my own eyes
relax, and then I find that the spies
don’t see they are the true werewolves
I be tearing it like my names Beowulf

Recorded on an internal laptop mic.
The Dopplegangerz – Ungodly instrumental.

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LYRICS:

Hunger in a martyr is hardest to get
Propaganda works well when you forget
I never rest when the best are lonely
Bullet ridden, be killing the holy
The oppressive villains
I’m willing to use my pen
When I see a friend taken
By the force within
Taking focus from those on the lotus
Cursed worse than locus
Hocus pocus, magic men claiming cures
To take away the sinister sleeping snores, And wake the slumber, I find thunder
In the black of the 80s, When we were babies
Maybe things will naturally change
I reign in mental ability,
light the flame
Fight the trauma, for wanting water
to make crops to feed the community
And then I see whats in me
and then I find divinity
and if the kin with me
See the sin in me
then they only find infinity
reasons to not have unity

I was followed by days of destruction
in Delhi, no function
like railway junctions
in forty seven, it’s heaven
finding the essence
but they be messing with lesson
making sure we never deafen
only resting with the tested
they lessening our lessons
take a smith ‘n weston
to shoot off their mask
Shatter the lie like glass.

I see the same things
as the insane kings
like maharaja ranjeet
seat meet defeat
on the khalsa front
the panth is done
with lineage taking over
puts dignity a little lower
in the eye of the white man
white tiger white flower
final hour, twelve o clock
when we begin to rock
the same time i find
I rhyme to soul’s hold
loosening my breath
and find some rest
I hold it like a gun
mind on the one
sword or lord, i devour
the ones living sour
at the expense of pence
and pounds found
through fortunes
from less fortunate
earth, they hurting it
these blokes who gloat
about the world’s glory
they bore me,
baagis around town
with crowns
they the folk
that I be down, for.

CHORUS

yo kharak whatever
you ain’t so clever
your tactics
can’t match this
nalwa state of mind
you pretty mental
blinging like a temple
on the outside
I ride the tide of hope
man of the people
how did you cope?
you now turned feeble
he signed a treaty
in case they beat he
and meet he
on the battlefield
then he feel
the khalsa mindset
a general in the 80s
reincarnated
instead of other babies
he tried to wait in LINE
but he made up his MIND
it was victory that really deserved
cuz it matched his worth.
that was given at birth
but he found himself
looking like maharaja duleep singh
sitting back drinking gin
he travelled many miles
exiled for a LONG while
and now he dreams of old days
in misls slash files

Tracing tracks, terrible tyrants
trying to tie a tyre or turban
knotting a normal naked neck
Bleeding blood into the beard
I’m far from falseness, I feel the fear
Propagated poisonousness propaganda
Pierces through the pieces of popular
Memories and memoirs of the members
Gracefully gifted the genocide given,
generalises the generation’s guise gone.
feeling a forgotten freedom is fried
like a king killing a kingdom i lied
for special spots of silent solitude
Feeling feeble for folks falling for
flavoured food
victims are violently violated
Dunk the dumb like it was a donut
mind my middle is me missing
fleeing from feeling forgotten
Total tension is twice as tight
rest relived, reading right
Sense of scary sensations
payback in packs of patience
alien ability, expressed to
alleviate illiterates
from alienation
arising using
aggravation
and always
alliteration.

Recorded on internal laptop mic.
Just Look Instrumental by SorekByNino.

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LYRICS:

I picked apart the park
that set me on the path
battle wasn’t half as hard
now I have heart
and then we laughed
two souls giggle,
wiggle the ground
a sound vibration
making trauma vacant
I sit patient
against the memory
that I’m facing
I’m wasting no time
for the fall
I’m springing up
I’m ringing up
only those who matter
who batter
the oppression globally
it’s home to me
wherever i am
and rest assured
the best are all
whom have their ears open
and fight the threats that are spoken
im toking the same breath
of the ten G’s
which means
no one can tell me that I’m mean
unless they see me as a threat
I bet
I Singh nod every Singh I met
and get faith and trust
used for righteousness
I bus a bus with no fuss
walk the path as an artist
rip apart the darkness
but that’s never really been
really the hardest
part
creating art
has always been there
since the beginning
it’s a means to be winning
memories from fading mind
I rhyme
to remind myself
at a later time:
that everythings okay
that things always work out

Each verse depicts a different age and what patriarchal society wanted from me.

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LYRICS:

VERSE ONE

The first lesson started in the home
Told to be staying alone as a lone
wolf, and loose all natural instincts
to love and be loved, don’t ever think
hugs till 13 but then you be mean
as you grow up and take life as a young teen
seated upright jamming with close family
display manhood, how else can it be?
anything other than be alone and strong
anything else is just straight dead wrong
if they hit you,
make sure you hit ’em in the jaw
black and blue, hit ’em back straight to the floor
ripped skin on back from many attacks
Mandela flex – cause he had facts on facts
I react alive, I need war to surprise,
learnt early, I need more to survive

VERSE TWO

told by the guardians to lose myself
don’t be a sissy, don’t need to ask for help
whilst in the classroom, boom boom
is heart beat, as I meet my doom doom
how can I eat the laughs they be giving
I’m living without vulnerability
blocks my ability
of mind’s agility
blind to my own destruction
questioning punctuation’s function
living in a shell, mind is a living hell
waiting all day for the school bell
to signal
so I can just leave
unless a teacher,
has detention greed
curves up spine…
out of line.. tick tick on my clock
sounds like, click click my lock
get the letters right and I’ll be free
war is exactly, what was taught to me…

VERSE THREE

they wan’na use lessons of my young age
get me to shave and let all my rage
to be aimed at a ‘bad guys’ brain,
government passes blame
what a shame, fire flame
without giving a decent reason
they charge me with treason
unless I be feast in’ on a middle-eastern
sending army recruiters to uproots us
full metal jacket style – you wan’na loot us
by ignoring the sanctioned law
shoot guns for fun, fight in a war
violence is harming me – not clever to do
way more than any army, could ever do
and if you got a gun, just please run
study what patriarchy has done
it won’t be fun
but no need to fight now
peaceful reflection is the only sight found.

Real off-the-top freestyle from a 3AM night in Nov 2013.
Recorded on an internal laptop mic.
Transcript of freestyle (thanks to @jagklall)

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LYRICS:

I write things that I be seeing when I close my eyes
And realise that everything I was taught was a lie
So I’m a lie in, but I’m just lying to my own hole
in my soul.
I realise that its so gaping
Itself, and I know it’s gonna be taking
that all the love I’ve ever received and never given back
I’m gonna come back and attack
that same shame that be telling me I can’t lose
Coz’ I realise that it belongs in the hug
And if I give then I will receive
And that’s the one beauty that I’ve seen within me
Coz’ I know
I could really change the globe
and If I tried
I will make sure no one ever cried
coz’ I know that pain will be taken away
when I realise that it’s all within me
so I’m gonna be doing it for all the guys at 23
haven’t realised
I’m coming with the same pain
felt like when I was 63 probably in my own past life
so I’m-a do it for the rights, and do it for the fights
that we never really won
coz’ we did it all alone
so I’m gonna be walking,
kind of really talking
for the same people that never were born king
when I come in the game and realise
that this is what i live for my name
I lie for
everyone to be taking that blame
that self-sabotaging
is just targeting
the same person that you really really need to love
make sure you give yourself
one big hug
and tell yourself that it’s all within
and if you wanna be a king
then you can be that king
you don’t need to be realising it’s in the name of the Singh
so I came back
you don’t even really need to really really sin
so I don’t even really need to really believe that
and I express it through real rap
coz’ I be try’na open my eyes and open my heart
and realise the lies
so I’m gonna be laughing when I be talking to my own soul
and saying, ‘man I love you’
coz’ this is the best thing i could say
‘thank you. I love you. I forgive you’
this is all the best things
thank you my lord
I’ll be telling me it’s all about coming for that sword
chop off the head of ignorance
and that’s the best place that i’m gonna come for it though
I’m-a keep on going when I’m dropping and i’m slowing
anyone who wanna show it, i’ll be like I’m-a come n be showing
and I don’t know if this is just the right kinda way
coz’ I’ma make sure my community from UK
be coming with a way that we can express ourselves
and make sure that we do it for our own health
and fight the ego
tell my own bro that we can fight the ego
then we gonna go and we gonna fight that ego
keep fighting fighting
when I come back and the lighting be coming
so fast, it be like sharper than the lighting bolt
coz’ it’ll be like Usain Bolt
and when i be coming I don’t know if I be running from myself
in my own darkness
but regardless
i’m coming like the fastest
bolt, bolt, when i be a coming on the Sunday
when I be on the run day
when I be kinda on the fun-est day
when I be doing like a ‘chatka’ in Gatka
they’ll be telling me that I’ve maybe gone too far
but that’s alright
so I slow it down
take time and realise when I’m rhyming on
Immortal technique beat *giggle*
and then I find my feet…

I wan’na meditate on landscapes and find what it takes
to take breaks on soundscapes
to make James Blakes ‘n fight fakes
take the rake from trees that shake
their brown offerings of leaves

as they whisper bye to all the bees
I now hibernate away from hibernia
light me ya’, burn on ya’, further-er
murder all the murderers
who wanna come n murder ya’
throw ’em further-er
so they can all learn from ya’

jazz hands are tied to the sky
moon takes the tide where oceans lie
not like ministers wearing suits ‘n ties
hiding ties to times of lowest kind’a crimes

A fable where I’m still able
to be sleeping in a cradle
take aim with Yoshi in a game
and a red guy, wow found flame
flap flap with the wings to attack
by spinning by pressing A back to back
Beating these enemies they dying
But not as much as me, crying from trying
so hard to beat the boss
3 year old ‘n still feeling the loss
understood what victory really meant
jumping for highest ladder as i went,
past, laughed hard till the last second
no time to eat till we reckon
mum comes home ‘n starts stepping
said we as not just me
there’s also my big brother, he
taught me the pad and controls
so I thank him as I rolls
past bowser and his children
making sure that I kill them
as thats what natures there for?
or maybe I’ll unlearn that, therefore.